Honestly I'm just not a big fan of, in Theater Days, how the girls never show their teeth for the Japanese characters with an ee sound (such as ki, shi, ri, etc.), resulting in a really weird mouth formation lol.

This has been pretty common in the iM@S franchise tho, characters in the main games (not only 765 girls but also rivals and DLC guests included too) never really used their teeth on i sounds (even though Scamco bothered in modeling their teeth as I could verify by ripping some of iM@S 2 models). It was not until Platinum Stars that they got their teeth visible, heck I remember being surprised by this on Twitter lol. I think it is more of a design choice rather than anything else, they probably just wanted the game to mimic everything from the main games including some extra and minor details like this one. Idk, it doesn't surprise me that some ppl see it weird, but I got used to this after all this time playing the main games so that's probably why I don't see that as a big problem.

Well, after some days with the game released, I want to know what's everyone's thoughts about it! And did you play it a lot?

For my part, I wrote a long critique in a comment on a reddit post in case someone wants to check what I think about it. There are a few good and bas things I left out because I was lazy to continue writing, but for the big part, that's what I think about the game so far.

TL;DR version would be that I think the game looks more like a Early Access more than a finished product. It has lots of bugs (even with the daily login, yikes), a kinda bad organized UI, slow Producer level up (and lack of Producer Rank) and the fact that there's no MV mode and the 10 draw gacha won't give you at least 1 SR (two basic things for every iM@S game, the ability to watch your idols dancing has been there since Arcade and the 1 SR with each 10 roll since Deresute) its kind of a bummer. Nonetheless this is SideM's rhythm game and I'm gonna support it as much as I can, but I really hope Scamco step their game up and start fixing things as soon as possible, because at this moment, I can say without a doubt that I'm not surprised. In fact, I'm disappointed with them and their treatment to my beloved boys.

What about you guys? Any good/bad things you've noticed during your time playing the game?

So... If there are a few obvious things about it, it's that this game is more story-focused (which is fine for the most part) and it's rushed. Really rushed. I don't think I need to say more about the lack of MV mode, voices in story mode, and Master as well as the bugs (guess they gonna keep the Ken memes going). If this game is released around the time the anime airs instead of trying to compete with UtaPri, I wouldn't have many problems with it.

The entire point of getting SSRs in this game besides the stats is the special performances, not the costume. And honestly, you don't need SSRs (or SRs for that matter) to complete the current missions other than getting Kaoru or Tsubasa for certain missions if you don't pick either of them as starters (their R versions exist and are easier to obtain theoretically). A fully leveled R+ team plus a star rank or 2 will do the job as long you play well. You won't get a higher rank than A, but it's whatever.

I guess it's safe to say that this isn't a pure rhythm game. There's a rhythm game mode in it for Lives, but that's not what the entire game is built around.

it is a terrible idea to go into this expecting the exact same experience as SS or TD.

You're setting yourself up to hate this game because if you're going into it for the rhythm game, you're looking at a shallow game with no challenge.The game is all about the entire package rather than just one mode. Idol Training, interacting, etc. are what make the game whole, not the rhythm game.

The lack of an MV mode and no voices in commus are the most baffling things and show the game was rushed to compete with UtaPri. I don't even mind the lack of a Master difficulty because you can't even lose in this game anyway, so the mere concept of having multiple difficulty levels is entirely moot if there's no challenge or stakes if you fail.

Overall, it's okay. I'd still play Deresute or Mirishita over this, but this is on the back burner for when I'm bored.

I like mostly everything about the game. The UI is vibrant and really unique to me (the chibis are my favorite part) and it feels the most "console experience" out of the three iM@S mobile rhythm games out on the market right now. At first I thought the work-produce aspect was really boring and tiring but it's actually pretty nice to do while watching/listening to YouTube videos, especially when you're grinding for event points. The graphics thankfully look much better than the YouTube videos and the anti-aliasing's pretty good too. The cloth physics need work though and the models... yeah idk it's a toss-up on the graphics, really.

But speaking of event points, oh my god this event is just way too punishing on casual players lmao. I know it's their first event but only the top 5k players get the event SR? And they aren't giving out an SR through points rewards? This event already has a lot of aspects in common with the mobage Live Event type, but I didn't think the tiering in this game would be just as harsh as the Mobage... Perhaps the anime will increase the playerbase and in turn those tier cutoffs? Idk it's just crazy harsh and requires you to play every hour of the day. I can't even imagine a High x Joker or Jupiter event jfc.

Basically, add a goddamn guaranteed SR in the gacha (HOW is that not a thing for this kind of game omfg), make events WAAAAY more friendly (add a points SR and increase tiers), have a huge graphical update (like pay-Cygames-to-redo-all-your-graphics type of update), or... maybe just not release your game solely to compete with UtaPri? Maybe have a grand late September/early October SideM celebration with the anime and rhythm game at the same time? Give time to promote the game like Millishita?

Sorry for the long ranty post, but Bamco really didn't do SideM justice and I hope we can get on the level of Millishita in the next year. Idk they could've done so much better but meh. I enjoy it for what it is, I just expected so much more for my favorite male idols :/

The good news is; they recently implemented guaranteed SR to the gacha. Well, so far only the Limited event gacha but I believe they stated in-game about adding it to the regular 315 gacha at a later date. (Possibly during Beit's SSR release?)

I'm not sure if this is known already, but SRs being in points gacha was already there since release? I got a Ryu SR out of it before the Balloon Wind event started.

Ranking isn't...too terrible, I must say. I safely tiered for Amehiko during the Balloon Wind event and stayed in the 5k tier with only 40k~50k event points? (if my memory serves right, I'll look at my own screenshot later...) If this was Deresute or Mirishita, I bet the cutoff would be a lot higher than that, considering the border is only for 5k and above but maybe it's true that Mstage doesn't have a huge playerbase compared to it's sister games...yet. Interested to see how this current event will go though considering Touma is quite popular and Episode of Jupiter was released few days ago.

Overall, this game have flaws, but I can see them slowly improving on stuff? Maybe it's just me being forgivable for a new game ahah. Maybe personal preference, but a part of me kind of like how Mstage is taking a different attempt from Deresute/Mirishita (I admit I couldn't get invested with Mirishita as much atm due to a the game being quite similar to Deresute and most of my fav girls have an SSR already-) and doesn't solely focus on rhythm. I'll keep playing and looking forward to how it'll progress.